Film About George Reeves, TV Superman

Film's cast sees a classic tale of overreaching ambition

Bill Muller
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 8, 2006 12:00 AM

During a pivotal scene in the Humphrey Bogart movie Key Largo, Bogie's character asks gangster Johnny Rocco what he wants. Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) is at a loss, so Bogie fills in the blanks.

"He wants more, don't you Rocco?"

"Yeah," Rocco replies. "That's it. More. That's right! I want more!"

That consuming desire dominates Hollywoodland, a film about the suspicious death of TV Superman George Reeves (Ben Affleck) and the would-be Sam Spade (Adrien Brody) who investigates the actor's apparent suicide.

Reeves and the gumshoe, Louis Simo, have a common goal: more.

"I think it's a universal thing, that we all have this impression that more of whatever it is that we crave will make us happy and more fulfilled," Brody says. "And I think a lot of people actually have a fascination with being a celebrity in the movie industry . . . a lot of people want to be actors.

"And I don't know if all the people who want to be actors really want to be actors and do the work to be a great actor. They want to be famous, ultimately. They want to be known and they want to be in movies and they want to live the glamorous life it appears to be."

Such was the case with Reeves, who became a household name as Superman in the '50s but aspired to be a matinee idol. It was fame that led to his downfall.

"George Reeves was an iconic guy because of who he played, and that was in some way tragic for him," Affleck says, "and that very tragedy and paradox, that he got the thing he wished for and ultimately it was very destructive, is part of what makes the character so good."

In the film, Reeves' scenes in From Here to Eternity are edited out after a test audience recognizes him as Superman. Although he wanted to move forward in his career, he couldn't escape the hokey kids show about a hero in tights who could leap tall buildings in a single bound.

A police investigation concluded that Reeves, upset over his fading career, shot himself at his home in 1959. But other evidence hinted at foul play, and the film offers multiple theories.

However Reeves died, Affleck felt a special responsibility to portray him accurately.

"I think of George as a guy who never really got a fair shake," Affleck says, "so I thought it would be the least that we could do here to give him his fair shake.

"I wanted to play him as authentically as possible, and fortunately he left behind a body of work that I could look at and watch . . . 104 episodes of the television show."

Simo, too, seeks stardom, though of a different kind. He wants to be a Mike Hammer-style private eye, so much so that his mannerisms prompt another detective to crack that the world doesn't need another Ralph Meeker.

Hollywoodland director Allen Coulter says Reeves and Simo "both believe that their lives are less than they could be and that if only they could attain a kind of stardom . . . that somehow their lives would have more meaning and more value. They are defining themselves by other people's vision of who they are."

Adds co-star Robin Tunney, who plays Reeves' girlfriend: "It's not just about an actor whose career wasn't enough. It's something I think we can all find in our own lives. I've been in bad movies. This is actually one of the only good ones I've been in. It doesn't define who you are, and I think that's what makes you happy as a person."

As for Simo, Tunney says, "He's obsessed with making something of himself and can't look at his wife and say 'That's a beautiful woman' . . . it's the tragic American dream."

Both Affleck and Brody share traits with Reeves. Brody became known for a role that was mostly edited out of Terrence Malick's World War II movie, The Thin Red Line. Affleck reached his zenith of stardom during his days of dating Jennifer Lopez but has fallen from grace a bit.

These days, less seems like more for both men, who are eager to appear in independent films rather than studio productions.

"I made a decision to just do the kind of things, the kind of movies I really like to be in and I can be proud of being in," Affleck says, "(not) work for money or work to be famous or any of that stuff. I got really lucky, the first movie that I did in that period was this one."

Brody, an Oscar winner for his starring role as a Jew trapped in Nazi-ravaged Warsaw in The Pianist, also prefers art films, though he recently appeared in King Kong ("Who wouldn't," he says).

"I just think (independent movies) are more inspirational," Brody says. "That's the bottom line. It would be great to do big studio movies that everyone sees and I'm well compensated for, but at least for me, there are too few great roles within that."

And besides, those roles go to only a select few.

"Now you don't only have to be famous but your movies have to open and do incredibly well consistently, which they will attribute to you somehow," Brody says, "saying you opened the movie and if the movie sucks and doesn't open or is brilliant and doesn't open . . . that means that you didn't open the movie.

"If I've mainly done independent movies and they've made money, but they don't have big numbers, it's not on their radar."

And bigger will always be better to some, Affleck says.

"To me, it's about the condition of humanity, whereby it's never really enough, that feeling, that ambition that drives you to achieve . . . and also keeps us perpetually dissatisfied, that 'grass is greener' thing," he says. "Those two things, which once propelled us, at the same time, frustrate and stifle us.

" 'If I had just had this, then I'd be happy,' (then) finding out that's not the thing."